


I can reap (must mean I can sow)

by Darling_please_do



Category: One Piece
Genre: Angst, Family, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Mentions of Ace - Freeform, but mostly it's just love luffy hour on the sunny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:41:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25856071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darling_please_do/pseuds/Darling_please_do
Summary: "I'd have given Ace my heart."He says it so casually, an easy admission. Something clatters to the floor in the kitchen, something small like silverware. Chopper can hear it but Luffy must not, because he keepstalking.orEverything is calm on the sunny until Luffy takes an interest in Chopper's latest medical book.
Relationships: Monkey D. Luffy & Mugiwara Kaizoku | Strawhat Pirates, Monkey D. Luffy & Tony Tony Chopper, Monkey D. Luffy/Roronoa Zoro
Comments: 16
Kudos: 356





	I can reap (must mean I can sow)

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer! I own nothing.
> 
> Please enjoy!

_Show me your friends and I'll show you your future_

_Show me your scars and I can help with the suture_

_I can reap, must mean I can sew_

\- Wilderado

* * *

Wind is strong on the water today, but its still warm enough to be pleasant out on deck. The smell of citrus and salt carry on the breeze and Luffy can be heard begging Sanji for snacks throughout most of the ship.

It's calm on the Thousand Sunny, or as close to calm as it gets. Robin is gardening and Nami examines her mikan with a careful eye, the sound of Franky and Usopp tinkering joins Brook's soft song to creature a comforting melody. Soon Zoro's snoring joins in and Chopper finds himself humming happily as he settles in the swordsman's lap to finish reading a book he'd picked up at the last port.

It's about the human heart, all the advances they've made in the past ten years, and it makes his chest constrict because Hiriluk would've found it all so interesting. It hurts to learn new things without him, but that old ache is becoming more of a distant throb because even if Hiriluk is no longer here, Chopper isn't alone. His nakama wouldn't be interested in the new techniques detailed in this book, but if Chopper wanted to share it there is no doubt they would all take the time to listen. 

And that- _Its so nice_. To know that they would make time for him even if they weren't really getting anything out of it, nothing except a few more minutes spent together.

God, he loves these days. The ones where the sea is serene and they are inbetween adventures. No one trying to fight them, no island to explore. Just him and his nakama, floating on gentle waters.

Chopper never imagined life could be this good back in Drum, especially after the good doctor passed away. He misses Hiriluk often, and wants so badly to share his joy with the man who made him. Wants the doctor to know he's a pirate now, living just the way Hiriluk always wanted him to! And he has the most amazing crew.

He wants to tell him that Zoro is scary and brutal but also unfailing loyal and he's soft only for them, lets Chopper sleep in the curve of his arm. He knows the doctor would love Franky and his strange inventions, how he keeps working no matter how many times a project seems to fail. How Brook's songs are beautiful and versatile, the prettiest sounds he's ever head.

Wants to tell him that Robin is the smartest person he's ever met, maybe the smartest to ever live, even if she isn't a doctor like them. When she smiles at other people it's coy and guarded but when she smiles at Chopper and their crew its forreal, blue eyes so bright it reminds him of the sea on a sunny day. And he should know about Nami who treasures money above everything except her friends, who is frugal at every turn unless they need something, only ever generous to her nakama.

Wants to tell him how Sanji adores women but loves the crew more, and even though he says otherwise Chopper knows he puts the same amount of care into all their snacks. Even Luffy stops to notice the pretty arrangements before inhaling it all in one bite. And he wants to say that Usopp tells the _best_ stories, and he's brave even though he doesn't know it. Usopp might even be the bravest, because he keeps fighting despite being scared. He'd mention how lonely it was when the sniper left and how he cried to finally have his fishing buddy back.

But most of all Chopper wants to tell him about Luffy, his captain and very first friend. Luffy who has suffered and struggled and remains kind despite all of that. He wants the doctor to know that when Luffy _grins_ in that rubbery way that makes his mouth seem too big for his face, the sun shines brighter. Worries melt at the sound of his laughter, and he's so devoted Chopper feels cowed by it. No one else has a captain like that. Luffy is special, and he chose them so that makes them special too. He thinks Hiriluk would like to know that Luffy gives the warmest hugs and he gives them freely. He sleeps in the boys room even though he has his own quarters now, and sometimes he wiggles his way into Chopper's hammock-

And in that room with rubber arms keeping him close, the sound of all their nakama resting near by, Chopper knows there's no safer place on earth.

"Oi, shitty rubber! Lunch is in an hour, you can wait that long."

Sanji's voice floats across the deck, his exasperation so loud it makes Chopper smile. Beside him Zoro shifts, sensing Luffy's presence before the young captain plops down next to them.

"Hey Chopper! Zoro!" The greeting is full of laughter. Luffy lays sprawled over the Sunny's grassy deck, fingers instinctively curling around soft green foliage. Chopper has had his nose in the same book all day, one that's thick and red with a funny looking organ on the front.

"Whacha reading?" The rubber boy wonders aloud, ever curious. 

Around them the noises have slowly come to a stop. It's natural that Luffy's voice carries, and the crew is always listening. The idea of him asking after a book catches their attention.

"Oh this? It's just a book about hearts!" Chopper gushes, pleased to have the captain's eyes on him.

"Is that why you looked so happy?"

Luffy rolls closer, head pillowed on Zoro's thigh. He reaches out to trace rubbery fingers over the books title, and when that proves too boring he moves down to the heart printed in detail across the cover.

"Kind of." The reindeer agrees, eyes following Luffy's hand as it skims over his book. "There's a really cool procedure called a heart transplant! We didn't ever get to do them on Drum though. It's the kind of thing that only gets done at actual hospitals."

Luffy grins at him, face stretching to accommodate the smile and _oh,_ thats the one Chopper wishes Hiriluk could see. He always get like this when someone's caught his attention, eyes bright with wonder like a child being offered a new flavor of candy. 

"What's a heart transplant?" The captain sits up, round brown eyes scanning the pages over Chopper's shoulder but obviously not long enough to read them. The reindeer watches as his head tilts curiously to the side. 

"Ahhh well, its hard to explain." Chopper flushes, and Luffy coos as his little ears turn pink. "But basically you'd take a heart from one person and put it into another." He summarizes, eyes flickering to find Robin's across the deck. She's always better at explaining things so that Luffy can understand them, and he knows she's been listening even though it looks like she's still engrossed in pruning a small rose bush. When their eyes catch she gives him a secret smile, encouraging.

"Woah," Luffy exclaims, eyes alight with admiration. "So you can take somebody's heart and give it to someone else? That's so cool!" The captain cheers, settling himself flush against Zoro's side. If the swordsman is annoyed by all the noise he doesn't show it, merely shifting so Luffy can be comfortable.

"Yes, but its usually only done in hospitals. I've never even seen some of the equipment listed here, and even if someone had all of that they would still need a donor or else it wouldn't work." The small reindeer shows Luffy a page in his book, one with pictures that makes the young captain whistle, low and impressed.

"That just looks like a piece of raw meat to me, but it sounds great! What's a donor do?"

"A donor?" Chopper parrots, reaching to scratch behind a furry ear as he strings together a response. "Mmm, well not just anyone can give their heart you know. It would be stealing to take one thats already in use, so usually they take them from people who are already dying and don't need it anymore."

Luffy makes a noncommittal noise, dark curls fluttering as the breeze rolls in. He smells rubbery, with hint of ocean foam and worn straw. It's the most comforting smell in the world.

"Oh. That's kinda dumb though." The captain remarks absently.

Chopper deflates in an instant. Slowly he cranes his neck to look at the the rubber boy, blue nose scrunched in bewilderment. "What, why? How's that dumb?" Just a minute ago he was declaring how cool it was, whooping so loud Nami stopped picking her mikan just to watch them.

"Just cause," Luffy says simply, oblivious to any hurt feelings. "What if I wanted to be a donor?" 

Chopper exhales a sigh of relief, thinks _he must not understand._

"That's not how it works though." The reindeer tells him, unbelievably patient if not a little perplexed. "We only take hearts from people who don't need them anymore. And you still need yours!" His voice is insistent, because even though Luffy's heart is his own they all share a piece of it.

"Mhm, dying people. You said that." Luffy hums. "I still would have been a donor though, if I could've been." The rubber boy shrugs, doesn't notice that the crew has gone strangely quiet around them. No more little _tap tap tap_ from Usopp's factory or tinkering from Franky's shop. Even Zoro's snoring has trailed off into nothingness.

"Huh?" Chopper feels his mouth go dry. It reminds him of the Sandora desert and years without rain. Reminds him of an island far away and a newspaper that crumpled uselessly under his hooves. It was said, under the black and white photo of Ace's body, that straw hat had suffered similar injuries. It listed him as missing, and Chopper remembers feeling his insides pull apart as he wondered exactly how similar these wounds were.

"Id have given Ace my heart." Luffy explains as if any of them could still be wondering who he was talking about. It would have been a shockingly easy decision for him to make. At the time, with his brothers weight in his arms and Ace's blood cooling rapidly against his hands, he didn't feel like he'd need his heart anymore anyways.

Maybe by that point it was too damaged to give. But he has his crew back now, and his heart is steadily on the mend!

He says it so casually, an easy admission.

Something clatters to the floor in the kitchen, something small like silverware. Chopper can hear it but Luffy must not, because he keeps _talking._

"But Iva-chan said nothing would've saved him and I'd never heard of donors before." The captain nods, smiling as Zoro's arm curls tight around him. And for the hundredth time Chopper regrets not being around for that loss. Luffy has always been there for the crew, guiding them through the worst of times. It's a bitter ache knowing they all let him down so horrifically. Even if by all accounts there wasn't anything he could've done, just being by Luffy's side would've been enough for him. But he wasn't there, and now he wonders how Luffy grieved, how he manages to talk about this like it's not something they all avoid like the plague.

"But not just Ace!" Luffy exclaims, suddenly reaching out to scoop the little reindeer into his arms, brown eyes wide and adoring. "Id give my heart to you if you needed it Chopper!" He leans so far to the side he's practically draped across Zoro. The man holds him still with a palm to his lower back, lips twitching as if he knows what the captain is going to say next. "Or Zoro!" Luffy continues just as he'd expected, snickering as the swordsman in question cracks an eye open to watch them. The usually glaring green is impossibly fond.

"He might actually have to take me up on that offer someday, _shishishi._ " The rubber boy rubs his nose, a familiar habit. Chopper watches the expression on Zoro's face soften a fraction more.

"And i'd give it to Nami and Usopp and Sanji and Robin and Franky and Brook!" Luffy counts them off on his fingers, one by one. "If any of our nakama needs a heart they can just use mine. You guys already have it anyhow." He grins, and it's a wonder he doesn't see how they look at him, like he's the only thing in the world that matters.

Because he is. He shaped them into who they are, gave them family and a home on the open ocean. If they have his heart then to say he has theirs would be a vast understatement.

"S-Shut up! You saying that doesn't make me happy to be your friend! Bastard!" Chopper sniffles, hiding his face in the crook of Luffy's neck. If the rubber boy feels his shirt getting wet he doesn't mention it. Just grins and grins and _grins._

Zoro recovers the fastest, because of course he does. He's been with Luffy the longest, and on most days they share a single brain cell. "Course you would, idiot." The swordsman murmurs, just for his captain to hear. "But do us all a favor and keep your heart right where it is."

And just as the sun pulls on the planets, their crew is caught in Luffy's orbit. Chopper can hear Franky bawling even before the cyborg joins them on deck, Usopp following behind him albeit much quieter. He's still sniveling though, Chopper can tell.

Brook appears near the swing, skeletal features pulled up into a smile. "You could have my heart Captain, if only I had one!" 

Luffy laughs himself silly about it, Chopper's head still pressed to his shoulder. The reindeer can feel his happiness as a vibration, and it chases away the heavy feeling that had been constricting his heart. 

Soon the galley door slams open, Sanji's voice thick when he yells, "Shitty rubber captain! Where do you get off saying something like that?"

"Yeah!" Nami joins in, just the slightest wobble to her words. "Like we'd ever let that happen! Don't go giving your heart away so casually!" She approaches, one hand raised. For a moment Chopper fears she's going to take a swipe at their captain, but instead she merely catches his cheek to hold him still as she plants a soft kiss to his forehead.

Luffy only giggles as the crew crowds around. "Im not! I wouldn't give it to anyone else, just you guys!" He assures, unable to be anything but honest.

A hand materializes from the rails behind them. Carefully it pushes the famed strawhat aside to card slender fingers through his curls.

"Well then it's only fair that you know, we'd give you our hearts as well captain."

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by an episode of Grey's Anatomy so congrats if you caught that. The episode is season 4 episode 5, and I based this off of George's little speech where he says he'd give his dad his heart if he could have, if it would have saved him. 
> 
> I started watching it right after my mom died so I really felt the sentiment of that scene and I thought Luffy would too lol
> 
> I didnt capture the grief of loss as I should have, but I wanted this to be light and fluffy. More about the healing as opposed to the heartache.
> 
> Anyways, I really hope you enjoyed! And thanks so much for reading. Comments and kudos are insanely appreciated. You guys are my heroes.
> 
> I am a plant, please water me.
> 
> [Tumblr](https://darlingpleasedo.tumblr.com/) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Darlingpleased1)


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